Thoughts on the year ahead...

We are on the cusp of a new year; tonight will ring in the start of a new year!! The paper's are abuzz with forecasts for the financial markets, job markets, and opportunities in the new year (Will emerging markets keep gaining; Moving past Madoff; Futures pare gains on Jobless Claims). The buzz has me thinking about my life; what do I want out of 2010?

This summer I was having an existential crisis. Where was my life going, what was I doing, did I care about anything, etc. One day I jotted down a few thoughts about myself and things I am committed to...
I am called to the work place
I am called to non-Christians
I am called to be a light in darkness
I am called to serve

So in 2010, my career is on the list. I've been working hard to grow at work and to move up the corporate ladder, so to speak. I have a wonderful boss and we've spent the last year chatting about growth and development. I've applied for 3 jobs in the past few months and have an interview next week; BUT I've been talking to another Senior Director about an AMAZING position which will open up in the next few months. It would be a huge challenge, with amazing potential. So, I'm thinking, praying, working diligently asking for wisdom as I continue to grow at work.

An old college acquaintance of mine wrote on her blog yesterday, "I really want to be a more peaceful person. Enjoying life in the moment and not trying to rush things along. I’m going to spend the year meditating on Philippians 4:4-9. I want to have a gentle spirit. I want to be anxious for nothing. I want to think about things that are true, pure and lovely. And oh, to have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Peace, peace, beautiful peace. I crave it." I can totally relate to this!! It is also what I think of when I think of our non-Christian friends. So many of them want peace and don't have it. I hope that 2010 is a year of peace in my heart, trusting God more deeply and in that way being an arrow pointing people back to Him.

My husband is a semi-professional athlete. So we live a bit of a different life, one that revolves around training schedules, weekends away from home, and being contentious about what we eat. I'm not always good at that, I like to eat out and recently have gotten into baking cookies for the holidays. We've made it a goal to eat out less in 2010. We're cutting back to once a week and eating in the other 6. I think this could be fun!! If you have any favorite recipes send them our way!!

Along those same lines, I want to be more fit in 2010. I've always considered myself a fit person, but I got a "Wii Fit" for Christmas and it says I am 33 years old!! AND I should bring my BMI down to 22 instead of 23. That means, according to my new trainer, that I should loose 5 pounds. That sounds impossible to me! I haven't weighed that little since high school. BUT I'm going to try; be a bit more conscious about what I eat and stay diligent with my running and exercising. I also have 2 races I want to run this spring the Parkway Classic in April and the Annapolis 10 miler in August! Should be a great year!!

In closing I'd like to steal a quote from my friend Leah "Silly 2009 life plans, when will you realize you have little say over what really happens?" Only time will tell what actually happens in 2010!

2009: A Year in Review - BOOKS

If you don't know I am a book feign. It's a small problem; we have a huge book shelf in the living room (spans 1 wall), 1 small one in the bedroom, and at least 100 books in the closet. This summer we got iPhones and my FAVORITE app is the Kindle. It's amazing, books at my finger tip in seconds. It's actually a little bit dangerous for me! Here's a look at what I've been filling my mind with this year, some good...some bad...some childish...all were enriching in some way shape or form.

1. Twilight Saga: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn - What is there to say, they call the series the "Twilight Saga" for a reason! Drama, teenage romance, rebellion....yup it's all there and I LOVED it.

2. The Year of Rice & Salt - "...a thoughtful and powerful examination of cultures and the people who shape them. How might human history be different if 14th-century Europe was utterly wiped out by plague and Islamic and Buddhist societies emerged as the world's dominant religious and political forces?" So far, this is an excellent book. I love the inside look into eastern culture and how the course of history could be different.

3. The Blessed Child - The story circulates around a small orphan from Ethiopia named Caleb. Caleb, in a tale of daring adventure is rescued from a sure death by a Red Cross nurse and Peace Corps worker. In America, Caleb is placed into the hands of a greedy Priest who upon discovery of his extrodinary powers (raising a man from the dead, restoring sight to a blind boy, and healing a paraplegic) exploits him for personal and financial reasons. His rescuers, the Red Cross nurse and Peace Corps worker, come to his aid once again protecting him from the plans of the Priest and a prominent politician. Bill Bright and Ted Dekker did a great job of writing a gripping story, but underlying it there is such a sweet message reminding us to turn back to the Father. His love for his people is so deep and so often we miss all he has for us because we're "asleep." I really enjoyed the concepts of "walking in the kingdom" and the "unseen" side of life that the authors attempted to put into writing.

4. God of the Possible - "...exceptionally engaging and biblically centered text defends a theological claim that is generating heated controversy among evangelicals: that from God's perspective, the future is partly open, a realm of possibilities as well as certainties."

5. Hot, Flat, and Crowded - "America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked--how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time." I have to confess, I read on the WSJ that Obama was reading this book on his summer vacation and that he says, he's been greatly influenced by Thomas Friedman. So I bought the book, I haven't finished it. I'm maybe 1/4 through. I was disappointed. There were some good points, some interesting things to think about, but overall, I thought it was a man on a rant. Kind of lame.

6. The Road - "in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else." This book reminded me a lot of The Stand, by Stephen King. I really liked it! I will be seeing the movie when it comes out.

7. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most - "...offers advice for handling these unpleasant exchanges in a manner that accomplishes their objective and diminishes the possibility that anyone will be needlessly hurt." I started reading this book shortly after someone had a conversation with me that...went horribly wrong. I was so hurt by the way this friend approached me/confronted me. This book helped me to understand what may have happened and how I could work to prevent a similar situation from befalling me. It's been a great tool in navigating family relationships, being newly married, and work conflict. HIGHLY recommend it!!

8. Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad - Written by a Waris Dirie about her journey from Desert Nomad to American Super model and U.N. Special Ambassador. Throughout the book she speaks loudly on the subject of female genital mutilation and champions environmental causes. Her exceptional story telling "is intriguing, powerful, and unique." If you're even a little interested in FMG I would recommend this book as a first step into learning more.

9. The Shack - It was a re-read for me; but this book always impacts me. I love the way the author portrays the Father's love for his children. Don't read it without a box of tissues and a tender heart.

10. The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Blue Bear - "...an intrepid "seagoing bear" offers his "demibiography." A foundling floating in a nutshell on the Zamonian Sea, the azure-furred Bluebear is rescued by Minipirates, impish nautical geniuses, who raise him and then, after he gets too big, abandon him to live out 13 lifetimes of adventure populated by a dizzying array of eccentric characters." I LOVED this book. The characters, the stories, the imagination, the vast array of new words; it was just about perfect! I will be reading more Walter Moers in 2010.

a sad way to learn marital truth

I get The Week, every week. Great little gem, if you're into the news. There is a section called "Gossip" its three little blurbs about various gossip items. One caught my attention today.

"Ashley Dupre, the call girl whose trysts with Eliot Spitzer lead to the New York governor's resignation, returned to the tabloids this week, this time as a sex columnist for the New York Post. In her debut column, Dupre, 24, dishes advice on how to spot signs that your husband is cheating. "Guys are easy to please and I don't mean just sexually," she tells a worried wife. "Ask your self, when was the last time you did something to make your husband feel loved, special, and appreciated...and if you can't remember, then that's your sign right there."

First off, what great advice! It seems that so often we get married or enter into long-term committed relationships and forget to be loving and respectful to each other. Several months ago, my husband and I read "Love and Respect" with some friends, and while overall the book didn't thrill me, it did generat some great conversations between us. I remember one night in particular where my husband said that it meant so much to him when I remember the little things, that he doesn't like certain foods, or when I keep his preferences in mind. Its so easy to be me focused and not remember to think of him and make sure he feels "loved, special, and appreciated."

So Thanks Ashley, for the good advice! (Although I do find it sad that it takes a call girl to remind us all of the simple truth of loving our husbands.)

Snow in DC!!!

I can't believe it, the weather reports keep getting more and more ominous as the day goes on. The DCist is now reporting that the National Weather Service estimates that between 10 and 20 inches of snow could accumulate between midnight tonight and 6 a.m. on Sunday. Woah! This could be awesome!!

Christmas at the Cayless' - the decorations

Christmas at the Cayless' - the food

Is it ok we don't have a Christmas Tree?

I have been feeling a lot of social pressure recently. I guess it all centers around the holiday. This will be our first Christmas as "us." And my friends are busy making "its our first christmas" ornaments and decorating their homes, and well I'm not. I don't really care that its our first christmas, and we don't have a tree (although I would like one). Truth is, we're not home very much this month, gone 2 out of 4 weekends.

Overall, I just don't know what to do with the social pressure to be a certain kind of wife, who cooks and cleans and nests in her home. I just don't do that, and my husband doesn't exactly encourage me to do that, he would rather us do it together. Which, in all honesty, ROCKS but it does make us something of a social anomaly.

Life......

God's omnipresence - quote from Greg Boyd's book, God of the Possible

Doesn't Einstein's theory of relativity prove that time is ultimately unreal, thus disproving the idea that God experiences a past or a future?

"...Einstein's theory is concerned only with the transference of information at the speed of light between finite observers. But God is not one finite observer among others. He is an observer who is contemporaneous with every finite observer. This changes everything (though we shouldn't fault Einstein for not incorporating this into his theory).

"It means that God's experience of others is not dependent on (relative to) the speed of light. He doesn't need to "wait" for information to arrive to him via the speed of light. He is "there" when the information originates"